1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a moving assist apparatus and a moving assist method which assist movement of a vehicle by applying one of a plurality of traveling modes of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
As a vehicle including a plurality of traveling modes, a hybrid vehicle using an internal combustion engine and a motor apparatus as a driving source is known. The hybrid vehicle has a first mode in which EV traveling only using the motor while not maintaining a charge storage amount in a secondary battery is given priority, and a second mode in which HV traveling using the internal combustion engine and the motor while maintaining the charge storage amount in the battery is given priority. Further, in the hybrid vehicle, a regenerative braking is performed to charge a secondary battery with the motor apparatus functioning as a generator by turning off an accelerator or the like during traveling downslope or with a high speed.
Conventionally, as an example of an apparatus for controlling the hybrid vehicle including the plurality of traveling modes, an apparatus for dividing a route from a current position to a destination into a plurality of sections and setting an EV mode corresponding to the first mode or a HV mode corresponding to the second mode for each of these sections has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP 2009-12605 (JP 2009-12605)). In this apparatus, by associating an average speed with each of the divided sections and making a storage state of the battery at the destination to be close to a lower limit value, the HV mode is set for the section of a high average speed and the EV mode is set for other section.
However, even the traveling mode is set in the manner as described above, the storage state of the secondary battery may not always vary as predicted depending on for example a traffic flow condition, a road slope and the like. For example, in the case that the secondary battery is charged to above that predicted by the regenerative braking, if the storage state of the secondary battery has reached a fully charged state, the energy obtained by the regenerative braking can not be recovered by the secondary battery, but be released wastefully, and therefore entire energy efficiency is lowered.